PROJECT A- EARTH MY ONLY HOME

Under the Climate Change Advocacy Campaign
proposed by Canada FIRST, a multi-platform program has been proposed. Following
is the description of the project:

OVERVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON BANGLADESH

Bangladesh is one of those countries would be suffered most due to
the impact of climate change. Due to the ever-increasing concentration of Green
House Gases (GHGs), the temperature of the earth crust and surrounding
atmosphere is increasing. Bangladesh is found to be particularly vulnerable to
climate change, because of existing pressures on its ecosystems and its low
capacity to adapt. On all continents, water supply and the threat to coastal
areas will be an issue.

As immediate impact of climate change, monsoon rain will increase
and flash floods will occur more frequently; a rise in sea levels will displace
a large proportion of the population and increase coastal flooding and saline
intrusion into aquifers and rivers across a wide belt in the south of the
country; droughts will intensify (particularly in the north-western region);
each of these events will significantly affect agriculture and food security.

• Climate change will increasingly affect the health and wellbeing
of Bangladesh (affecting sanitation and reducing safe drinking water).

• Ecosystems and biodiversity may be the most vulnerable sector to
climate change, which not only refers to a few endangered species. What is at
stake is the environment as a whole – despite efforts of protection, the
overall system may be losing its flexibility and resilience to adapt to
changes.

• Higher salinity in the coastal belts could alter the entire
ecosystem of the Sundarbans and affect the rich biodiversity of the forest. A
25 cm rise in sea level is predicted to result in a 40% mangrove loss, and a
45cm rise, combined with other forms of anthropogenic stress on the Sundarbans,
could lead to the destruction of 75% of the Sundarbans mangroves.

• Climate change can lead to a loss of biodiversity and
productivity in Bangladesh.

In conclusion this could be predicted that the impact of climate
change would be devastated for the people of Bangladesh as there will be
possibilities of losing one third of the land resources of the country due to
rise of sea level.

HOW BANGLADESH PREPARED FOR THE IMPACT

Most of the people of Bangladesh are ignorant on the impact of
climate change. They even unaware on the danger of the global warming
phenomenon and their contribution to that. Such unawareness resulted in
uncontrolled deforestation and mass use of materials not friendly to the
environment.

After the Copenhagen Climate Conference, the Government of
Bangladesh, NGOs and members of the media have been advertising on the success
of Bangladesh in getting compensation from the rich world but there is no
initiative to create awareness among the people of Bangladesh on the effects of
climate change on the society, economy and lives of the people of Bangladesh.
Nobody organizing any campaign against the ongoing deforestation operation
carried all over the country. It is observed that most of the industries have
been releasing pollutant without any restriction and the people have been using
materials already proved unfriendly to the environment. The farmers have been
using chemical fertilizers and insecticides in higher dosages. These malpractices cause more

damage to the environment but nobody carries any organized campaign to educate
the people of the country on the danger of damaging environment so that they
stop using polluting materials and raise protest against deforestation and
industrial pollution.

Moreover, most of the Bangladeshi people have a common idea that
the rich and industrialized nations such as USA, Canada and few European
countries are mostly responsible for the climate change. These countries have
been releasing most of GHGs and doing nothing to control the emission.
Therefore creating much sufferings for the people of poor and under developed
countries.

WHAT BANGLADESH SHOULD DO

Negotiating with the developed world for suitable compensation may
be a must do but creating awareness among the mass people on the devastating
effects of climate change and their responsibilities to perform the duties to
control the causes they have been creating to make the situation worsen. It is
also the responsibility of the Government, NGOs and members of the Media to
draw a right picture of the Climate Change Situation by informing the
respective role of all concerned including the developed, developing and under
developed countries in creating the problems and the measures those have been
taken to minimize the problems.

THE CURRENT SITUATION IN BANGLADESH

Unfortunately, only compensation part has been emphasized in
Bangladesh. The people are continue to believe that the developed world is the
devil causing global warming, they have nothing to do and the rich countries
will pay compensation for them because they are the main cause for the climate
change problem.

THE PRESCRIPTION

Fortunately, the climate change is very new issue for Bangladeshi
people and there is still time to make them aware on the danger of the
situation and their part of responsibilities to make the situation improved.
For this, a coordinated Public awareness Campaign should be developed and carry
all over the country as urgent basis.

THE PROGRAM OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE
ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN

Canada FIRST Movement (CanFIRST) is a NFP Corporation registered
in Canada under the Federal NFP Act.  Realizing
the present poor status of CLIMATE CHANGE KNOWLEDGE BASE in Bangladesh, Canada
FIRST Movement has planned to carry a coordinated campaign to make the people
of Bangladesh more aware on the real situation created by the Climate Change
Process.

Based on the realistic and up to date information, the campaign
will provide real time information on the Environment Problems, Causes and
Possible Remedies. The Campaign will also discuss on the respective role of the
concerned countries in creating environment problems and the

measures taken to minimize the problems.

EARTH: MY ONLY HOME CAMPAIGN

First part of the CanFIRST Climate Change Advocacy Campaign has
been titled as EARTH: MY ONLY HOME. The campaign has two core parts. The first
part is combination of a Multimedia based presentation which has discussed on
the problem, causes and remedies and then open discussion where the audience

can participate. This part will be organized in cooperation of The
Climate Reality Project (Chaired by honorable Al Gore). Trained Climate Reality
Leaders will deliver appropriate presentations in front of mass audiences. In
the second part, Yaan Arthus-Bertrand’s epic film “HOME” will be screened. To
understand the messages delivered in this movie, HOME has been dubbed in
Bengali.

Objectives of this campaign are as
follows:

1.
To educate the mass people of Bangladesh on the devastating impact
of climate change especially on the society, economy and lives of the people of
Bangladesh.

2.   
To inform on the action plan taken by the developed, developing
and under developed countries to stop the further degradation of climate due to
global warming.

3.   
To inform on the responsibilities of the people for protecting the
climate and environment rom further degradation.

4.   
To make the people aware on the challenges they will face in near
future as consequences of climate change.

5.   
Finally, facilitate public participation in the process to protect
the climate and environment through systematic approaches which
will include massive forestation, recycling of commodities, use of environment
friendly materials, less emission of GHGs, discourage deforestation, discourage
release of industrial pollutants into open water, encourage environment
friendly agricultural practices etc.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

The Earth My only Home project has been divided into following two
parts:

1.   
Open Air Presentation Program

2.   
Classroom Presentation Program

Open Air Presentation Program: This
presentation program has been designed for the mass people. Prepared in Bangla,
the multimedia-based presentation will deliver basic information on the impact
of climate change. This presentation will answer three basic questions; Why
Climate

Change, How this happening and What should we do. This program
will be organized in open space such as playground, roadside etc. There shall
be no formal invitation, this will be open for everybody. At this stage, 46
Open Air Presentation Programs have been planned to be be organized accordingly

following schedule:

November 2023 -February 2024:

Dhaka- 10 programs

March 2024:

Chittagong : 2 Programs

Cox’s Bazar : 1 Program

Comilla : 2 Programs

Noakhali : 1 Program

April 2014:

Rajshahi : 2 Programs

Faridpur : 2 Programs

Barisal : 2 Program

May 2014:

Sylhet : 2 Programs

Sunamganj : 1 Program

Moulvibazar : 1 Program

June 2024:

Tangail : 1 Programs

Jamalpur : 1 Programs

Sherpur : 1 Program

July 2024:

Dinajpur: 1 Program

Rangpur: 1 Program

Bogra- 2 Programs

Sirajgonj: 1 Program

August 2024:

Netrakona: 1 Program

Kishoreganj: 1 Program

Mymensingh- 2 Programs

September 2024:

Magura : 1 Program

Dhaka : 2 Programs

Gazipur: 1 Program

October 2024:

Khulna : 1 Program

Dhaka : 3 Programs

Classroom Presentation Program: This part of the project will be inaugurated on 30^th December 2023 through an inaugural program to be held at Dhaka University. Mainly, the students community of Bangladesh will attend the Classroom Presentation Program in a close environment. The presentations will be more technical in nature and formal.
These will be by invitation only program and external resources will be used
more extensively. In this program, multimedia based presentation will be given in both

Bangla and English. At the end of the presentation, the documentary HOME will
be screened. CanFIRST has planned to organize the campaign in 22 public and
private Universities within next six months and in 60 large schools and
colleges within next two year. Classroom Presentation Program has

selected the student society as audience with a hope that this
educated group could receive the message easily and will help to disseminate
the message among the mass people in a short range of time.

Initially, following Universities have been selected as the
campaign venue:

1. Dhaka University (DU)

2. Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET)

3. Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU)

4. Jahangirnagar University (JU)

5. Chittagong University (CU)

6. Rajshahi University (RU)

7. Khulna University (KU)

8. Shahjalal University of  Science & Technology (SUT)

9. North South University (NSU)

10. East West University (EWU)

11. Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB)

12. American International University (AIUB)

13. South East University (SEU)

14. Premiere University (PU)

15. Jagannath University (JNU)

16. Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SBAU)

17. Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET)

18. Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET)

19. Islamic University (IU)

20. Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET)

21. Comilla University (UC)

22. BRAC University

23. United International University

24. Daffodil University

25. Barisal University